The Long Road Home
by Dante Vangrave
Summary: A magical artifact suddenly activates itself, and Harry Potter abruptly finds himself a very, very long way from home.
1. Unexpected

**A/N:** _I've had this idea in my head for a while now, and I sort of rushed it out, but hopefully this comes off as presentable._

_This is eventually going to be a sort-of crossover with a mobile app game called "_MonTowers ~Legend of Summoners~_", wherein all you do is pretty much collect monsters. If you haven't played it before (and you're probably lucky, considering how tedious and repetitive that freaking game is), think Pokémon with boobs and various mythological creatures and more boobs. I'm going to take it a little more seriously with this though._

_Word of warning: stuff starts off a bit slow. Also, I'm using one word writing prompts – I've never done this before and it's very interesting to do. _

_Anyways, read and review, friends._

* * *

**1. Unexpected**

It was eleven in the morning and Harry Potter, twenty-seven years old, was relaxing on a beach in Atlantic City in the United States.

Just a week ago, he'd packed everything he owned into an expanding trunk that he afterwards had shrunk and stuck onto a necklace – taking the late Alastor Moody's infamous catchphrase of "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" to heart – instead of having his house broken into and his belongings potentially stolen by the paparazzi, a rabid fangirl or, heaven forbid, a rabid fanboy while he was out of the country.

Afterwards, he had taken a plane to the United States, in no hurry and looking forward to his first flight on an airplane (though it had turned out to be mildly disappointing in the end). He had never been out of the UK before; the United States had seemed like a good place to visit. He had never gambled before either – not with money at any rate – and he had more money than he knew what to do with, and he had heard about Atlantic City before and had thought: why not?

So far, it was turning out to be a great vacation.

He was just shifting himself on his blanket, wanting to tan his back, when his cell phone rang.

At Hermione's insistence after he had expressed his desire to go vacationing across the pond, he had also picked up a mobile phone. Being a muggleborn witch, on top of being a genius, she was very familiar with both worlds, and felt that cell phones were far more convenient than using owls or other familiars.

Harry was hard-pressed to disagree; it was instantaneous communication instead of waiting a day or two for a letter, not to mention that it was annoying to feed the stuck-up courier owls (and bird food for some reason kept getting more expensive) – though at times, it made him miss Hedwig. As long as he didn't use too much magic around it, the device would work perfectly.

After letting it ring a few more times, he sighed and finally answered it. "Hello, Harry Potter here."

"Good morning, Mister Potter," a female voice, one that he recognized as belonging to the receptionist from his hotel, answered. For a moment, he wondered how they had his number before he remembered that he had given it to the front desk the day he checked in. "I'm terribly sorry to bother you, sir, but you seem to have received a package. UPS just dropped it off with me a few minutes ago."

That caught Harry a little off guard. The only people who knew that he was in the States were his friends, and they would've asked Hermione to call him if they'd sent something. Not to mention that they most likely would not have used such muggle methods to give him something. This was most unexpected.

"Does it say who it's from?" he asked, careful to keep an even tone.

There was a slight ruffling of paper, probably the packaging wrap, before the receptionist answered again. "It says it's from a . . . um, Andromeda Tonks, sir. The return address is from London."

No doubt the receptionist thought it to be an odd name, he noted absently._ But it's definitely not from Andromeda, even though I know she knows how to use the muggle mail system,_ Harry thought._ Besides, other than the occasional letter, she's never sent me a package; she usually just waits for me to visit her and Teddy to give me something. It's also from London – Andromeda doesn't even _live_ in London._ _Whoever this is, they're being quite obvious._

"Not to worry, it's from my great aunt. She's fussy around me; I probably forgot something, so I think she asked my best friend where I was staying so she could sent it to me," Harry lied.

"Oh, I see," the receptionist replied, buying his story.

It was incredibly suspicious and inconvenient, but he would have to deal with the mysterious package immediately. He'd rather not leave a potentially ticking magical time bomb in the middle of a muggle city.

Glancing around mournfully at the beach, not to mention the buxom young women, Harry sighed again.

"Would you mind having it sent to my room?" he requested. His stomach rumbled slightly. "And two turkey and cheese sandwiches and some iced tea, if that's alright?" he added hopefully. "I'll be back at the hotel within fifteen minutes. I'm just down at the beach."

"That would be no problem, sir."

"Thank you," Harry said gratefully. He hung up and began to collect his belongings.

Thirty minutes later, Harry, freshly washed and dressed with his shrunken trunk hanging from his necklace as usual, munched away at a remaining corner of a sandwich while he inspected the mysterious package.

It was a simple square shape, about half a square foot in diameter, and mildly heavy. There were no odd markings on the plain brown wrapping, only his hotel address and name, along with a fake address from London together with Andromeda's name.

Harry chased his sandwich down with some iced tea before setting the glass aside and pulling the package closer to him.

"Alright then, you little bugger," Harry mumbled to himself.

The first thing he did was cast a diagnostics spell, to see what was inside. He groaned when the result came back as inconclusive, which meant that there was either some powerful magic surrounding the contents of the damn thing, or there was some powerful magic coming _from_ the damn thing.

With a grimace, he slowly opened the wrapping paper to reveal a plain white box – and inside the box was a small mirror and white notecard.

Arching an eyebrow, he prodded the card to see if it was going to explode or something.

When it didn't, he cautiously picked it up to read it. "What the hell?"

In bold colorful letters, the notecard exclaimed cheerfully:

**ADVENTURE AWAITS!**

_GAZE UPON THE MIRROR OF TIAMAT_

_AND YOU – YES YOU! – WILL BE GRANTED_

_YOUR OWN EPIC JOURNEY!_

_FAME, FORTUNE, ETERNAL GLORY;_

_ALL OF IT IS __**YOURS**__ FOR THE TAKING!_

That was all it said; nothing else, not even a name on the back.

Harry scratched the back of his head. "'The Mirror of Tiamat'? Tiamat – why does that sound kind of familiar . . . ?"

He glanced down at the mirror, which was obviously a powerful magical artifact.

"Well, whatever Tiamat is, I have no desire to do business with a magical mirror again," Harry said stringently, memories of the Mirror of Erised in particular fresh in his mind and most certainly not Sirius's mirror.

For all he knew, the thing would suck him into itself like a portal or something.

Of course, given his luck, that was exactly what happened next.

The Mirror of Tiamat started to glow a bright blue color, and before Harry could register that in his brain, what appeared to be the glass for the mirror seemed to shatter and collapse upon itself, the shards of glass swirling like a whirlpool, growing bigger and bigger.

"Oh motherf—" was all he could say before he was sucked into the widening rift.


	2. Creature

**2. Creature**

When Harry came to, he opened his eyes only to shut them tightly as the world began spinning from his dizzying trip through the blasted Mirror of Tiamat.

He lied there on his back, wherever he was, for a good ten minutes – or at least until he didn't feel like puking anymore.

Suddenly, something rough and wet was felt on his face. He slowly opened his eyes, cursing himself for letting his guard down while reaching for his wand, and then froze.

There, sitting over him, was a small white fox. A small white fox that had nine gently swaying tails, all of which were tipped with red fur.

"You're not a regular fox," he noted while moving carefully into an upright position, a hand on his wand in his pocket, as the fox-thing stared at him curiously with a tilted head.

"Huh," Harry sounded out, his still slightly dazed mind supplying him with a tidbit of information. "A kitsune. That's interesting."

He'd never seen a kitsune before in real life before. He vaguely remembered going over them in one of his Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, but since they weren't native to England nor did they live there, they were only reviewed in passing, so he didn't remember much of the details.

He shook his head, focusing on his current situation with the mirror. "Wait, where am I?" Wincing as he stood up, Harry took a good look around.

Wherever that bloody mirror had taken him, it had dropped him off in a forest. The foliage was fairly thick, but not enough to block out the sun like the deeper parts of the Forbidden Forest back at Hogwarts. Instead, this place had a pleasant aura about it, and sunlight dripped through cracks between the trees, giving the place a warm glow. In the distance, he could hear a few birds singing and the faint sound of running water.

"Well," Harry started, "at least that stupid thing had the decency to put me in a nice area, I suppose. No cuts from the glass shards either, so that's lucky too."

"Where is this place, anyway?" He scratched his head, looking at the kitsune, which had remained seated. "Japan, maybe, considering there's a kitsune here? And how the bloody hell am I supposed to go back to AC?"

He thought for a moment and then palmed his face. "By apparating, duh."

Closing his eyes in concentration, he envisioned his hotel room in his mind and directed himself there.

Nothing happened.

He tried again. And again. And again.

That was not a good sign. Harry opened his eyes and swore.

The little kitsune, seeing his distress, barked and moved forward, nuzzling Harry reassuringly while curling several of its long tails around his leg as well. It wasn't really bulky, but rather slender and sleek and very petite, so even though Harry had no real idea as to what gender it was – considering that it'd be weird and improper to look at its genitalia, since it was a more than likely a sapient being, given that it was a kitsune and all – he supposed it was a girl.

"I may not be in Kansas," Harry chuckled, though there was little humor in it, "but at least I have a little buddy with me for now."

Just then, a loud booming sound echoed through the forest, and Harry wheeled around, wand brandished in front of him while the little kitsune poked its – her – head between his legs.

Harry remained still while the sound continued. He turned his head as he tracked the origin of the sound to a thick, giant tree some distance away from him and his little companion.

Upon closer inspection, the tree in question was actually _yawning_, covering its 'mouth' with a branch as if it was an arm.

_Then_ it sprouted two large red eyes and blinked sleepily at him. It waved at him and he hesitantly waved back before it closed its eyes again, presumably to go back to sleep.

Harry stared. "Where the bloody hell am I?"

He glanced down when he felt a tug at his pant leg. The kitsune yipped once she had his attention and skittered away a little bit before stopping and looking back at him, as if she was waiting for him.

Pausing for a moment to look around, Harry sighed before moving to follow the little creature. "Might as well," he muttered. "Staying here's not gonna help me anyway."


	3. Friend

**3. Friend**

Harry sighed once again, this time in relief, as the odd duo came to the apparent edge of the massive forest, where the thickness of the foliage tapered off abruptly and the trees became scattered about the ground.

"Blimey," he muttered, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand and coming back with a very light sheen of sweat. Harry was not out of shape, not at all, but it had taken a solid four hours to navigate through the woods without stopping. He was thankful that he was already wearing a T-shirt, since it aired out much more easily than a long-sleeved shirt. In retrospect, he actually should have casted a cooling charm to help negate the sweat. Oh well. Instead, he hit himself with a cleaning charm which cleaned up the accumulated sweat and grime off of himself.

"Talk about a walk in the woods," he continued, snorting a little at his lame pun.

The kitsune whined and slouched to the ground, paws over her eyes and ears and tails drooped low. It didn't surprise Harry in the least that she understood him, given that he was pretty much used to magical creatures, like hippogryphs – Buckbeak came to mind – and sphinxes and centaurs and the like.

Had Hermione been there, she would've pondered long and hard as to how a Japanese creature of myth could understand English so well. He just chalked it up to magic and left it at that to spare himself a headache.

Harry snorted again, moving down to rest at the base of a tree – one that he had inspected briefly just in case it was sleeping or something like several other trees he had observed in the forest.

"Yes, I know, it was a lame joke," he said dryly. "Now, before we move on, let's take a break, alright?"

His little friend perked her ears up and shuffled over to him, jumping onto his lap and curling up. She raised her head and licked his cheek once in what Harry presumed was a sign of affection.

They sat in a comfortable silence underneath the shade of the tree, basking in the cool breeze that wafted over them and watching the clouds lumber slowly over them in the noon sky. The human was doing his best not to think about his situation at hand while the kitsune was seemingly happy that she had some company.

Slanting a glance down at the small form nestled on his lap, a thought pushed its way forward in his mind and he raised an eyebrow.

"Hey," Harry began, gaining the little kitsune's attention. "I just remembered – since you're a kitsune, can you take on a human form?"

The kitsune started in surprise before her ears drooped again and she shook her head with a small whine.

"Not yet then, I take it?" he asked. "Are you a little too young to do that or something?"

She nodded and Harry hummed softly. "Well, that's okay. I'm sure you'll get that ability eventually. Then we can actually talk to each other," he said with a friendly smile, stroking her ears gently.

The kitsune barked happily at that and nuzzled her head into his hand.

Harry stopped suddenly with a frown, and the kitsune looked up at him again.

"Hmm. How rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Harry. Harry Potter," he said, resuming his petting. "Do you have a name?"

The kitsune blinked and shook her head again despondently.

"May I . . . _give_ you a name?" Harry ventured cautiously after a moment. He knew that some creatures took names very seriously, and he had virtually no knowledge of how a kitsune would react to something like that. Still, his companion had proven herself to be pretty reliable so far, leading him out of the huge forest and keeping him company, and it seemed wrong to him to just keep calling her 'the kitsune' in his head.

Her ears perked up once more and she barked excitedly, waving her tailed around.

"I'll take that as a yes then," Harry said with a grin, which the kitsune confirmed with another bark.

"Hmm . . ." He tapped his chin thoughtfully as he took in her appearance. Her coat was pure white, with the exception of the tips of her tails, which were a rich red color – the same as her eyes. Harry raised an eyebrow. "How about . . . How do you feel about the name Ruby?"

The little kitsune tilted her head slightly before yipping happily. She reached up and licked Harry on the face enthusiastically.

Harry laughed as he rubbed the head of his new friend. "Ruby it is then."


End file.
